Trade-offs and Values

I was about 14 years old the first time I went backpacking. I'd camped a lot as a child but backpacking was something new. It wasn't just about sleeping in the woods. It was about figuring out what to pack, too. And there was a real penalty for packing too much, so I carefully considered every item.

I took way too much on my first trip, so I learned a lot. Like the value of a light pack. As I packed for successive trips, I'd leave behind a few items that weren't worth their weight on the previous trip, and add a few items that I'd missed on the trail. After a lot of trial and error, I came up with just the right pack...for me.

I imagine every backpacker has a similar story of trial and error, yet each comes up with different solutions since everyone seems to pack different stuff. I remember seeing someone with a hatchet on one of my first hikes. We were staying in a shelter on the AT in Tennessee. We had hiked all day through the rain. The shelter had a fireplace but everything was wet. It was evening and I was cold and damp. Right about then a couple of hikers arrived at the shelter. I don't know why but they looked experienced, like they had hiked a lot and knew what they were doing. They introduced themselves and sat for awhile and chatted, but it wasn't long before one of them got up and went to his pack and pulled out a hatchet. He then went out into the rain, found a medium-size, short, dead log, and proceeded to split the log right down the middle. Then he split it again, and again, until he's had a nice pile of dry kindling. He built a nice fire for us all that night, and I decided right then that I wanted to be able to do that on my next rainy hike.

Hatchets are heavy so I had to think twice before I put one in my pack, but I just couldn't stop thinking about how nice that fire was, so I packed one in on my next few trips. But it didn't rain. Still, I couldn't just leave it behind. After a few more trips, I traded the hatchet for a machete, which wasn't much lighter really, but it was a whole lot cooler when I was a kid. The machete was a lot more versatile, too, so I could use it for other things, but it was still pretty damn heavy for what I got out of it, and I still hadn't run into a long, cold, rainy day that made it worth it's weight.

After a few more trips I stopped packing the machete, too. And I never missed it. I still have it, and it brings me some great memories, but the cost vs. benefit for backpacking didn't work out.

Living close to nature is easy, and it's hard. It's a stress-free life full of insects. It's cold water running over the top of your head on a hot Summer's day. It's peaceful nights spent playing a guitar and sipping a warm beer. It's spare time and extra cash and long boring days spent watching all the other life around you.

But then, living the modern lifestyle is also easy, and it's hard. It's driving a new, air conditioned car and making the car payments. It's relaxing in front of a TV after working for someone else all day. It's enjoying a freshly-cut lawn after sweating behind a mower on your day off. It's working all year to pay the bills, then taking a two-week vacation...to go camping.